Vancouver music producer Vinay Vyas abandons neuroscience for beats

Nicki Minaj, Lonely Island have turned to TODAY

Vancouver's Vinay Vyas, 23, gave up his academic studies to embark on a musical career. He and his production partner, Justin Davey (right), have recently hit it big with Go Kindergarten, a raunchy urban-dance single by Andy Samberg’s musical comedy group, The Lonely Island, and Sweden’s quirky bottle blond, Robyn.

Photograph by: Steve Bosch
, PNG

Three years ago, Vinay Vyas was studying neuroscience at the University of Alberta.

These days, the Vancouver native is “goin’ kindergarten” — with help from a Saturday Night Live alumnus and a Scandinavian pop star.

Vyas, 23, and his production partner, Justin Davey, created the throbbing beats and chilly Asian-flavoured melody for Go Kindergarten, a raunchy urban-dance single by Andy Samberg’s musical comedy group, The Lonely Island, and Sweden’s quirky bottle blond, Robyn.

The video for the track, which has notched more than five million views on YouTube, stars hip-hop mogul Sean Combs and actor Paul Rudd taking part in a perverse version of Simon Says on the dance floor — eating garbage, punching their friends, and whipping out certain appendages which require pixelation.

Go Kindergarten is one of two Vyas/Davey tracks on The Lonely Island’s The Wack Album, which debuted at No. 7 on the Neilsen Soundscan charts in Canada, and No. 10 on Billboard in the U.S. last month. The second, I F---ed My Aunt, featuring rapper T-Pain, is a creepy tune about doing the nasty with an extended family member. The two producers, known as T.O.D.A.Y., aren’t responsible for lyrical content. Blame Samberg and his Island buddies, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.

“I want to show these records off to my friends and family, but I can’t with these ones,” laughs Vyas, also known as Vinay The Producer, on the phone from his home studio in Vancouver.

“We sent a folder of beats to The Lonely Island six months ago and next thing we know, they recorded songs with two of them. It was just one of those things that happened — there wasn’t a lot of extra work needed to be done.”

The two behind T.O.D.A.Y. — “You want people to be right there in the moment with you,” Vyas says of their name — are now putting the final touches on tracks for pop/R&B vocalist Jason Derulo, hip-hop star Flo Rida, dance-pop vixens Icona Pop, and rapper Ace Hood.

While producers such as Mutt Lange and Dr. Dre are known for their signature sounds, the two behind T.O.D.A.Y. prefer to be chameleons.

“We are extremely versatile,” says Vyas. “We are transparent. Justin comes from a dance, pop, Stargate-influenced background. I’m a melody guy — chords and melody are everything to me. I was driving down the road the other day and I heard a tractor outside and I started whistling, harmonizing with the tractor. I recorded the whistling melody on my iPhone, came home and replayed it on my synth and produced a track around it. I’m very strange that way. I hear music in all sorts of sounds, whether it’s a car door closing or the rustling of coins in someone’s pocket.

“I’m also quirky in the sense that I like to use weird vocal chops. We’re able to do anything under the sun — from someone as gangsta as 2 Chainz (Welcome Home) to a group as poppy as Icona Pop.”

As a child, Vyas was one of those classic cutlery-on-plate bangers, which led to a few piano lessons. (He quit because he didn’t enjoy being told what to play.) A few years later, he started tinkering on the piano, then picked up trumpet and guitar. “It was a hobby, but music was always on my mind,” says Vyas, who counts Indian composer A.R. Rahman, Bollywood soundtracks, ’70s pop (Elton John, The Eagles, Supertramp) and ’90s urban (The Fugees, Aaliyah, Dr. Dre, Timbaland) as his major influences.

“Whenever I heard an amazing song, it was always a roller-coaster for me. It was a drug.”

He couldn’t shake his addiction, even as a neuroscience student at the U of A.

Between classes, Vyas would sneak into the music rooms on campus, listening to students play piano or jamming on one himself. He would also make beats with FL Studio, a software program with sound effects, sample banks and editing tricks. He started selling his instrumentals through iamvinay.com, making between $25 and $100 a day. The figure soon jumped to $500 after his work was featured on the main page of Soundclick.com, a music site.

“I just found this passion; it struck up like a fire. I remember sitting in class and thinking, ‘I can’t wait to get home and get back to working on this music.’ Everyone thought, ‘Oh, he’s making beats on this program, isn’t that cool?’ In a short few months, my website started blowing up and generating revenue. I made enough that I didn’t need a job, I could just live off the website. Then, I decided to take time off school because I was getting 50 to 100 emails a day from people wanting to buy beats. I had major labels inquiring because the traffic on my website was so high.”

After three years in Edmonton, he ended up buying a one-way ticket to Miami, Fla. to work with Ace Hood. During a side trip to Orlando, Vyas introduced himself to one of Nicki Minaj’s main producers, Kane Beatz, at a club.

“It was my birthday,” remembers Vyas, who turned 21 on the fateful night. “We talked, then I sent him some beats, and at about 3 or 4 in the morning, he called me up and said: ‘Come to the studio the next day.’ It was amazing — I didn’t have any major deals, I didn’t have any major placements, I was independently working on my website — making and selling beats — so meeting Kane was a big opportunity for me.”

Around that time, Vyas decided to team up with his friend and fellow producer/songwriter, Justin Davey, to create T.O.D.A.Y. The two signed to Artist Publishing Group, a stable of producers and songwriters responsible for hits by Flo Rida (Wild Ones), Maroon 5 (Daylight), B.o.B. (Airplanes), Justin Bieber (Boyfriend), and Nicki Minaj (Super Bass).

“Mike is all about revision. There’s no such thing as just putting (a track) out. You revise, revise, revise and just when you think it’s there, you revise it a few more times. He’s an old-school guy that way, but he’s made us absolute monsters.

“In the next five years, I see a couple of Billboard Top 10 records and I see the Grammys. Those two things are my biggest dreams.”

More on This Story

Story Tools

Vancouver's Vinay Vyas, 23, gave up his academic studies to embark on a musical career. He and his production partner, Justin Davey (right), have recently hit it big with Go Kindergarten, a raunchy urban-dance single by Andy Samberg’s musical comedy group, The Lonely Island, and Sweden’s quirky bottle blond, Robyn.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.